Don't let it be forgot

August 9, 2021 9:02 AM

So... you're a fan of obscure, not-very-successful SF TV series, huh? Never mind your Star Treks, your Farscapes, even your Red Dwarves or Blake's Sevens, we're talking about series that are so lost to time and syndication that they sound like parodies of the space opera genre. Well, have you ever even heard of, let alone seen, Excalibur? Ran for two seasons on the BBC in the mid-seventies, ran for two seasons, combined Arthurian myth with Crowleyan mysticism, and was lost forever when the BBC, as was its custom, erased the videotapes to reuse them. Ring a bell? (Difficulty level: never actually existed.)

Excalibur is actually a collaborative fiction project by J. J. Guest, G. C. Baccaris, and Duncan Bowsman, an interactive wiki simulation in Twine that gives summaries of episodes (season 1, with 2 yet to come), actors, and inside baseball/backstage drama.

posted by Halloween Jack (63 comments total)

Was there actually a Logan's Run TV series?
posted by sammyo at 9:19 AM on August 9, 2021 [6 favorites]

There actually was, I watched a few episodes.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:23 AM on August 9, 2021 [6 favorites]

Oh, yeah, I watched that show.

Season 1 was better.
posted by kyrademon at 9:25 AM on August 9, 2021

For a series that lasted four freaky seasons, Lexx is pretty obscure.

Note. The Logan's Run series was, not surprisingly, typical 70's sci-fi garbage, but another quirky series, with a pre Bobby Ewing Patrick Duffy, called the Man from Atlantis, was pretty good.
posted by Beholder at 9:30 AM on August 9, 2021 [16 favorites]

It seems the "oh-that-rings-a-bell" trick here is that this sounds a lot like Camelot.
posted by bdc34 at 9:42 AM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

This reminds me of that little-remembered show Roger That!, that ran from 1981 to 1982, and was most notable for Matt Frewer replacing Stephen Collins as the title character in Season 2. Surprisingly, for the sheer number of big name guest stars, it was never rerun, and on top of that nearly all traces of the show have been scrubbed from the Web.

I suspect some sort of conspiracy, much like the one I know exists preventing The Teleporter Salesman from even being made.
posted by Devoidoid at 9:45 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

My hazy memories of forgettable and/or clichéd '80s TV shows like Misfits of Science, The Phoenix, Otherworld, Growing up Brienne of Tarth and Wizards and Warriors sometimes seem like fever dreams. This slots perfectly into that weird was-it-real nostalgia and excitement for a world with fewer limits.
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:51 AM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Wow, that shook loose, via some odd pathway, a brief memory of some 70s show I watched as a very young child, the sum total I can remember of is some... teenager I think? in a forest somewhere with some kind of ancient? or alien? artifact that gave him powers. I have a faint sense it was Egyptian but that's it.
posted by tavella at 10:13 AM on August 9, 2021

BrotherCaine: ISWYDT, although it might be noted that Gwendoline Christie did do this.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:25 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

It seems the "oh-that-rings-a-bell" trick here is that this sounds a lot like Camelot.

Sounds more like Camelot 3000.

While we're on the subject of obscure SF TV possibly from a parallel universe, I definitely remembering watching this on local Los Angeles TV as a weekly episodic show called "The Archer" and being disappointed that it was cancelled, but all the references say it was only ever released as a "fix-up" TV movie.
posted by The Tensor at 10:27 AM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Thought VR.5 was 'cool.'
posted by kfholy at 10:32 AM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Was also a massive Æon Flux afficionado.
posted by kfholy at 10:36 AM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

When you talk about Excalibur and obscure TV, you're pretty much talking about the short-lived Covington Cross, starring Nigel Terry and Cherie Lunghi from the 1981 John Boorman Excalibur.
posted by hanov3r at 10:38 AM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Sure, sure, but don't forget the cast of Merlin (1998). Rutger Hauer! James Earl Jones' voice! Helen Bonham Carter! Isabella Rossellini! Sam Neill! Martin Short!

I wore my home-recorded VHS tape out.
posted by warriorqueen at 10:43 AM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Sure, sure, but don't forget the cast of Merlin (1998).

Or the better 1983 Arthur the King (AKA Merlin & the Sword) - Malcolm McDowell as Arthur, Candice Bergen as Morgan Le Fay, Edward Woodward as Merlin, Rupert Everett as Lancelot and directed by Clive Donner.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:55 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah that one was great too. (I have an Arthurian Thing, or did.)
posted by warriorqueen at 10:57 AM on August 9, 2021

Also I had the hugest crush on Rupert Everett (obviously forever unrequited.)
posted by warriorqueen at 10:57 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Also sounds like Excalibur 2555 AD.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 11:00 AM on August 9, 2021

I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention The Omega Factor. I periodically look it up to be sure I didn’t imagine it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:00 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

It was preceded or followed by a sci-fi show that I can only barely remember. Originally the show was entirely non-violent.

Might it be Jason of Star Command?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:09 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Excalibur is a fun project - looking through the wiki the stories have a Blake's 7 vibe to them. If you're unfamiliar with the show it is worth seeking out as it is pretty weird most of the time (I recommend watching it along with this blog turned book when you do watch it). Excalibur also seems to have a bit of an Ace of Wands (my personal favourite) and Into the Labyrinth vibe as well.

It was preceded or followed by a sci-fi show that I can only barely remember.

Probably Ark II or the other 2 Filmation live action shows - Jason of Star Command and Space Academy.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:10 AM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Sure, sure, but don't forget the cast of Merlin (1998). Rutger Hauer! James Earl Jones' voice! Helen Bonham Carter! Isabella Rossellini! Sam Neill! Martin Short!

...

Or the better 1983 Arthur the King (AKA Merlin & the Sword) - Malcolm McDowell as Arthur, Candice Bergen as Morgan Le Fay, Edward Woodward as Merlin, Rupert Everett as Lancelot and directed by Clive Donner.

I am cursed to be all too familiar with the casts of all too many Arthurian adaptations.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:13 AM on August 9, 2021

There was this block of programming...on early Nickelodeon maybe, during the YCDTOTV era? consisting of imported spooky stuff.
Into the Labyrinth (Ron Moody as Rothgo the wizard)
Children of the Stones (Blake from B7 vs a suspicious village built around a henge)
The Haunting of Cassie Palmer (I'm 13! and this is my friend the ghostly Mr. Deverill)
Under the Mountain (scary alien Mr. Wilberforce!)
followed by The Tomorrow People (the 70's BBC one, where teleportation belts allowed psychic teen Mods to 'jaunt')
posted by bartleby at 11:20 AM on August 9, 2021 [5 favorites]

Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors as androids. Beat that for obscure.
posted by sardonyx at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2021 [6 favorites]

The Lost Saucer? I remember that one from being a kid.

And the space one above started as Space Academy, with James “Scotty” Doohan, and then it became Jason of Star Command with a lot of the same effects.

And the Shazam and Isis stuff is on HBO Max now. (Spoiler: it did not age well.)
posted by mephron at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

And the space one above started as Space Academy, with James “Scotty” Doohan

Doohan appeared on the spin-off, Jason of Star Command. The sci-fi star at the helm of Space Academy was Jonathan Harris, then best-known as Lost in Space's Doctor Smith.

Space Academy DID have a Star Trek connection - both Pamelyn Ferdin and Brian Tochi had appeared in TOS: "And the Children Shall Lead".
posted by hanov3r at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

And then you had Otherworld, where a family pops into a weird dystopian totalitarian alternate Earth and tries to figure out how to get home. It didn’t last long and I don’t think anyone cared enough to write a novel about how it finished or why it happened .
posted by mephron at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Far Out Space Nuts is another 70's gem. Also, The Lost Saucer. Both Saturday morning kid's shows.
posted by Beholder at 11:49 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

At first I thought this was going to be about Multiversal+, bringing you the finest programming from other timelines such as Columbo, starring Mark Ruffalo and that Star Trek backdoor pilot that didn't make it here.
posted by whuppy at 11:50 AM on August 9, 2021

You can't tell me that it never occurred to you that Manimal was a figment of your imagination.
posted by 1adam12 at 11:53 AM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

In the vein of bad futuristic shows with vaguely Egyptian references there's also Cleopatra 2525, a Sam Raimi project from 2000 featuring Jennifer Sky as a bizarro-Philip J Fry who is reanimated five centuries years after a botched boob job and joins Gina Torres and Vicky Pratt in a team of resistance fighters against the mechanized overlords who have relegated humanity to a Morlock type subterranean existence.
posted by xigxag at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2021 [7 favorites]

TACS - You're possibly thinking of the Shazam / Isis Hour.

Might be? I'm remembering the character as younger, but honestly it's such a fragmentary memory it could be me rebuilding it -- a modern kids TV block equivalent would definitely had teen leads!
posted by tavella at 12:08 PM on August 9, 2021

My hot take is that Excalibur is one the few shows where the American remake is better. Some of the accents in the cast were unfortunate, but losing the magic-with-a-k stuff made for tighter plotting.
posted by betweenthebars at 12:35 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

the better 1983 Arthur the King

I so much want to see this. Actually caught like just a minute of it, but was near the end... thought it would come on again, but no. Maybe I can locate it now, under this alternate title.) I'm comforted by the notion that since it was Made For TV, I can't imagine it surpassing Boorman's true "Excalibur."
posted by Rash at 12:37 PM on August 9, 2021

Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors as androids. Beat that for obscure.

The Fantastic Journey, featuring Roddy McDowell and the kid from Escape to Witch Mountain.

The Lost Saucer isn't obscure. There's a whole generation of kids who watched it every Saturday. Heck, I referred to The Lost Saucer in a conversation with my wife within the last month. (I also regularly say, "I said 'lunch', not 'launch'!")
posted by The Tensor at 12:54 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you liked Otherworld, Fantastic Journey is definitely one to check out. The hair is better.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:56 PM on August 9, 2021

Thinking, as one does, about Gareth Thomas (of Blake's 7 & Children of the Stones fame), I'm reminded of my other 2 favourites featuring him that'd I recommend - Star Maidens a camp German British co-production about a world where women dominate men and a children's programme from 1987 called Knights of God featuring the future of 2020 where a fascist anti-Christian religious order rules a Britain divided into North & South.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:05 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

My personal obscure favorite is Space: Above and Beyond. It's pure 90s, had a chance at greatness that was never going to happen.

Reading through the wiki/game, the summaries felt very British in their content. It reminded me of reading old 2000AD comics and early Dr. Who (with good reason to the second, of course).
posted by Hactar at 1:34 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Does time travel count as space?
The Girl From Tomorrow from Aus in the 90's.
posted by LD Feral at 1:36 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Probe "[was] an American science fiction television series, created by veteran television writer Michael I. Wagner and science fiction author Isaac Asimov as a sort of modern version of Jonny Quest or Tom Swift". 8 episodes, mid season replacement, pre-teen me watched every one, and I think I even taped them. Seems like they are on youtube, but I haven't checked personally.

Short version: "Dr. House, but engineering instead of medicine". So basically, Elon Musk.
posted by true at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2021 [7 favorites]

I just watched Stargate season 9 Episdoes 1-3, and the story was a kind of King Arthur in space (hidden cave system beneath Glastonbury Tor, hologram of Merlin, etc.). Michael Shanks was really good at reading 5 pages of exposition in under a minute.

I once rewatched the Saturday morning show "Isis" out of nostalgia. The goddess of ancient Egypt spent the pilot episode looking for a bicycle thief. Like…the police don't even care about bicycle thieves now. "Don't even care" is perhaps even an overstatement. Maybe it was the principle of the thing.

"Otherworld" had a scene that stuck with me, where the teenage boy was dating an android girl. The boy said, 'you count for less because you don't have a soul.' She took him underground, showed him the mainframe, pointed out the CPU unit which represented her mind, and said, "Here it is, my soul. Where is yours?"
posted by jabah at 1:55 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

And let's not forget Salvage 1.
posted by The Tensor at 2:03 PM on August 9, 2021 [7 favorites]

Probe, for Burgess Meredith. (Opening credits)
"Do you copy?"
posted by Rash at 2:05 PM on August 9, 2021

And let's not forget Salvage 1 yt .

I'd just as soon do so, if it's okay with you.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:37 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

My hazy memories of forgettable and/or clichéd '80s TV shows like Misfits of Science, The Phoenix, Otherworld, Growing up Brienne of Tarth and Wizards and Warriors sometimes seem like fever dreams. This slots perfectly into that weird was-it-real nostalgia and excitement for a world with fewer limits.

I'm a bit gobsmacked, I read that comment, saw "Growing Up Brienne of Tarth", and I was like WAT GUBoT I'M SO IN and then followed the link and it was joke thread post from me.

I may have the mind of a goldfish, but I know a hit when I see one.
posted by mcstayinskool at 2:38 PM on August 9, 2021 [10 favorites]

I'm delighted that I can contribute to a surreal moment for you. I don't think GUBoT would be forgettable or clichéd though really.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:06 PM on August 9, 2021

I love this very much.
posted by doctornemo at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2021

Also, has anyone mentioned the great British scientist Bernard Quatermass?

There's more than a touch of Quatermass and the Pit/ Five Million Years to Earth and Quatermass IV/ The Quatermass Conclusion here:

[A]t Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, a renowned scientist named Trellick is in the process of excavating a long barrow; a monument constructed during the Early Neolithic period. He and his team make an extraordinary discovery — the mound covers an ancient, yet highly advanced, spaceship. Trellick theorises that the spacecraft might have been passed down in legend...
posted by doctornemo at 5:56 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

I obsessed for years over Quatermass and The Pit after seeing on TV at a cousin's house sometime in the late 70s. It was unavailable for a long time on DVD, but I did manage to find the even-earlier BBC mini-series telling the story in black and white.

When I finally acquired the DVD of the film five years or so ago, I sat down to watch it with high anticipation and was absolutely not disappointed. I don't know if it's the best Hammer film ever, but I know it will forever be my favorite.
posted by lhauser at 6:54 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Until I saw the year, I thought this was about the Babylon 5 spin-off following the adventures of the Excalibur. Then I remembered that was called Crusade.
posted by Pryde at 9:10 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Obscure? Not-very-successful? I give you 1966's It's About Time. Some background
posted by Zedcaster at 9:47 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh, man I have so many fond memories of getting VHS tapes of Excalibur from my buddy in the UK (that they had to convert from PAL to NTSC for me). That episode where that guy ran around in a Speedo the entire time was... formative.

Anyway, it did interfere with watching and obeying The Husk but whatcha gonna do.
posted by pelvicsorcery at 5:18 AM on August 10, 2021 [6 favorites]

I give you 1966's It's About Time.

I'll see your time-traveling astronauts and raise you Run, Buddy, Run.
posted by hanov3r at 7:27 AM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Obscure? Not-very-successful? I give you 1966's It's About Time.

The theme song shows up in my mind occasionally. I must have watched them on some sort of rerun….
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:16 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

I give you 1966's It's About Time.

I'll see your time-traveling astronauts and raise you Run, Buddy, Run.

I'll see your fugitive from the mob and raise you The Immortal!
posted by Zedcaster at 5:35 PM on August 10, 2021

I guess for obscure, in the sense that they aren't readily available, the 2 I've wanted to see are the "cowboys from the past who start a detective agency in the present day" (of 1986) the Outlaws (1986) and the American attempt at Doctor Who featuring Vincent Price, Time Express.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:03 PM on August 10, 2021

I give you 1966's It's About Time.

I'll see your time-traveling astronauts and raise you Run, Buddy, Run.

We loved Run, Buddy, Run and were greatly disappointed when CBS replaced him mid-season with Mr. Terrific, the oh-so-unbelievably 1967 super-hero spoof in which mild-mannered Stanley Beamish took a pill which gave him temporary super powers. Captain Nice was a similar program over on NBC (except he drank a serum). But It's About Time was a lot more interesting, because of the cast, which included the singular Joe E. Ross who we knew as Gunther from "Car 54, Where Are You?" While playing his caveman character on the set of "It's About Time" he allegedly wouldn't wear any underwear and would repeatedly position his furs in order to flash Imogene Coca.
posted by Rash at 7:51 PM on August 10, 2021

I've got to be honest, Aswhagandha, Time Express sounds more like some weird Fantasy Island riff than an American attempt at Doctor Who, unless the description is missing something. I can't believe I never saw it.
posted by mollweide at 7:54 PM on August 10, 2021

That episode where that guy ran around in a Speedo the entire time was... formative.

posted by pelvicsorcery at 5:18 AM on August 10 [6 favorites +] [!]

eponysterical!
posted by tumbling at 11:46 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

That was my very first "eponysterical"! Is there a badge? A certificate? Admittance to the next level of Metafilter?
posted by tumbling at 11:47 PM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

Into the Labyrinth was pretty good, and had a half decent sequel, too. Also puts me in mind of the Chocky series (of which there were at least two), based on the novels, and the 80s series Tripods. UK TV did surprisingly good kids' drama, considering the cardboard sets they seemed to make do with.

I am waiting to discover where the website is that collects all this information together. There's bound to be one somewhere.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 12:40 AM on August 11, 2021

Time Express sounds more like some weird Fantasy Island

I've never seen it personally so I can't comment on whether it is true or not but when it comes up in some of the historical fandom stuff I've read it has been described as Doctor Who American Style. Vincent Price is frankly a good choice for something like that though.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:28 AM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

Návštěvníci

"Návštěvníci (The Visitors) is a Czechoslovak sci-fi TV series filmed between 1981 and 1983 by Czech director Jindřich Polák. In West Germany the series got the title Die Besucher (The Visitors), in the German Democratic Republic and Australia it was called Expedition Adam 84."

"It's the year 2484 and the Earth is threatened by a rogue comet which could fatally change its orbit. The solution is surprising - Adam Bernau, the greatest genius of 20th century developed 500 years ago an ingenious formula for easy transporting of continents and even worlds. Unfortunately, he made this discovery at the age of 11 and the exercise book containing it was destroyed in the fire. But this is not a challenge to Academic Filip who decides to send an expedition back in time to retrieve the precious exercise book from the fire. But everything is not so simple as it seems..."

Animation by Jan Švankmajer, music by Karel Svoboda.
posted by haemanu at 9:28 PM on August 11, 2021 [1 favorite]